New: Ruger Pistol Caliber Carbine

The Recently-Released 9mm Takedown Carbine Might Be the New Ultimate Survival Rifle

We love the Ruger 10/22, especially in its Takedown configuration. It’s a simple, light, and reliable rifle that’s well-suited to a variety of survival situations. The .22LR ammo is cheap to plink with, easy for new shooters to manage, excellent for hunting varmints, and with good shot placement it can take down a variety of small game. However, .22LR is not the ideal round for hunting bigger animals or for defense against human attackers — for these tasks, 9mm is a much better option.

We built this 10/22 Takedown into a survival rifle in RECOIL OFFGRID Issue 8.

Knowing this, Ruger has released a new carbine that’s clearly inspired by the 10/22 Takedown, but also provides the advantages of 9mm. It’s called the Ruger Pistol Caliber Carbine, or PC Carbine for short. In addition to its resemblance of the 10/22, approximately 80% of the PC Carbine’s trigger parts are compatible with that rifle, so you can easily upgrade the trigger with existing 10/22 parts. It also shares the same twist-to-disconnect mechanism as the 10/22 Takedown.

The new Ruger Pistol Caliber Carbine is available now.

Another survivalist-oriented feature of the new Pistol Caliber Carbine is clearly visible at the gun’s midsection. The carbine uses standard Ruger SR-series and Security-9 pistol magazines, and also includes a magwell adapter that makes the gun compatible with Glock magazines. If you already own one of these handguns, you’ll only need to carry one set of mags and ammo — that means less money spent, less weight in your pack, and less headaches if you misplace a mag for one of your weapons.

The PC Carbine includes front and rear iron sights on the barrel, as well as a picatinny rail on the receiver. The barrel is fluted for reduced weight, and available in threaded and non-threaded variants. The charging handle and mag release are reversible for left- or right-handed shooters. The gun weighs 6.8 pounds unloaded and is available at an MSRP of $649.

For more info on the new Ruger Pistol Caliber Carbine, check out the video below or go to Ruger.com. You can also read more details on RECOILweb.com. We’ve already got our hands on a sample of the carbine, and will be compiling a more detailed review with our impressions at the range in the future — stay tuned.